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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22682146">Walking the walk</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vinushuka/pseuds/Vinushuka'>Vinushuka</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>After the Ghoul [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dir en grey</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:54:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,753</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22682146</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vinushuka/pseuds/Vinushuka</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Toshiya has his first modelling training at Eva's office in Harajuku. After garment fitting they head out to a park to do their exercises. Toshiya notices that modelling is far more difficult than he expected, but he is determined to do his best with Eva's support.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Die/Toshiya (Dir en grey)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>After the Ghoul [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565338</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Walking the walk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Toshiya had to wake up early on Friday morning to be on time in his meeting with Eva. He arrived at Harajuku station in good time and from there he took a brisk walk to Eva’s studio located along Cat Street, a famous promenade connecting Shibya and Harajuku areas. It took a while for him to find the right place hidden in one of the side streets, but anyways he made it on time.</p><p>       When Toshiya opened the door to what looked like a small fashion boutique, he found Eva waiting for him. She put away the magazine she had been reading and hurried to greet Toshiya.</p><p>“Welcome, Toshiya! I’m glad you could make it. I was just about to call you. People have sometimes difficulties in finding this place”, Eva said and bowed politely to Toshiya.</p><p>“Well, it was a bit tricky, but Google maps is very handy in finding places”, Toshiya grinned tapping his cellphone.</p><p>       Eva lead Toshiya to the back of the shop and opened the door leading to the premises of her company. They consisted of a storage area, a sewing room, two small fitting rooms and a small office with glass walls. Two women were busy cutting fabrics and sewing garments when Toshiya and Eva turned up. Toshiya nodded to the women politely as they passed into the office room and sat down to begin their meeting.</p><p>“Okay, welcome to my world of fashion. This is where I do the design work and my assistants make the sample garments. The actual production happens elsewhere, in lower cost countries. I started my business with women’s clothing but now I have also designed some menswear. That’s why I asked you to join us. I want you to give a fresh face to my menswear line”, Eva explained measuring Toshiya’s habitus with her grey eyes. “But looking at you now, I’m not sure if any of our suits fit your wide shoulders without adjustments. I think the first thing we should do is to let my assistants take your measurements so that they can estimate if anything fits you straight away.</p><p>“Where are you going to have the show? Obviously, this place is not suitable for the purpose”, Toshiya asked.</p><p>“There are several fashion centers along Omotesando that offer facilities for fashion shows with catwalk, dressing rooms and other necessities. I’ve hired one of those places for our rehearsals and the show.”</p><p>“That sounds exciting and bit scary”, Toshiya huffed feeling nervousness creeping in.</p><p>“Fashion shows don’t differ that much from playing on stage. Only this time your clothes and your physical appearance are the main things and music is secondary. You will have to exercise your catwalk performance, but it’s by no means rocket science”, Eva remarked when she noticed that Toshiya was getting worried.</p><p>      After discussing the financial aspects of their co-operation, Eva took Toshiya to the sewing room to meet her assistants. The younger one of the women giggled and blushed heavily when she was told that she should take Toshiya’s measurements. She confessed that she knew, who Toshiya was, and that she had attended several Dir en grey’s concerts. Eva rolled her eyes when she dropped her tape measure several times because her hands shook too much. Finally, Eva lost her nerve and took the tape herself to make the measurements.</p><p>      Wisely Eva started the measurements from Toshiya’s back, hands and legs, but when she was supposed to measure his chest things started to get difficult. Toshiya followed her struggle and smiled at her reassuringly, but it just made things worse.</p><p>“I’m sorry. This may sound stupid, but I’m not used to being so close to a tall male like you”, Eva finally admitted.</p><p>“Well, the same goes the other way around. I’m not used to facing a tall woman like you either.”</p><p>“That’s interesting. We’re both out of each other’s comfort zones here”, Eva laughed and relaxed a bit.</p><p>“Okay, let’s try again”, Eva muttered mostly to herself and folded the measurement tape firmly around Toshiya’s body just below his armpits. “Wow, you’re buff”, she huffed when she saw the reading she got.  </p><p>“Exercise makes wonders. I used to be skinny as a string bean when I was younger”, Toshiya mused looking satisfied.</p><p>       When Toshiya’s measurements were done and recorded, the assistants headed to the storage room to find suitable garments, but they soon came back almost empty handed. They had only one blue suit that might fit Toshiya straight away. Toshiya tried it on together with a white dress shirt and, lo and behold, it fitted perfectly.</p><p>“Okay then, we will have to make corrections to everything else on short notice, but we can do it”, Eva concluded sounding determined. “Now that you have a suit on, we might as well exercise some walking. There’s not enough room here but we could go out on the street and walk there. I can show you how it’s done, and you can repeat after me. “</p><p>“Maybe I should put my shades on so that fans don’t recognize me”, Toshiya proposed. If they had already bumped into one Dir en grey fan, there was a possibility to meet more when they went out on the streets.</p><p>“Please do. I always forget that you’re a celebrity with an eager fandom”, Eva snickered and lead Toshiya out of the front door.</p><p>       When they entered the street, it was easy to see that sidewalks were all too crowded to do what they had planned. After a quick consideration Eva proposed that they would take a short walk to the nearby park area, which was typically quiet during the weekdays. Toshiya had nothing against her idea. It was much nicer to practice walking outside in a sunny park than doing it indoors.</p><p>        The walk to the park took about 15 minutes. When they found a nice walkway shadowed by tall trees, Eva stopped to look around.</p><p>“I think this place is well suited for our runway practice; straight and even path and not a soul in sight”, Eva told Toshiya and gave him a wide smile. “By the way, you look dazzling in that blue suit. The color suits you very well.”</p><p>“Thanks, I feel really comfortable wearing it”, Toshiya replied a slight blush spreading on his neck and face.</p><p>“Okay, why don’t we start. The first thing you should know is that walking on a catwalk is completely different from your normal gait.  You will have to sort of glide forward and keep your chest up and chin level. Every step you take comes in front of the previous one, like you were walking along a line. The ball of your foot should touch the catwalk first, not the heel and your toes should be pointing slightly outwards.  You should always look forward, never at your feet…”</p><p>      After explaining the principles of walking Eva showed Toshiya the right stance and walking style and Toshiya did his best to follow her example. At first this walking style felt difficult and somehow ridiculous, but after numerous repeats he started to feel more confident about himself. When Toshiya’s walk was roughly in control, it was time to concentrate on poses at the end of the catwalk. They were the most important part of the show. Poses gave the photographers time to take pictures and the audience time to see the details of the garment. Good photographs were the essential outcome of the show.</p><p>“So please, take a three to five seconds break before you change your pose to the next one”, Eva instructed Toshiya who was completely at loss with the terms Eva was using in her speech. Slowly but surely the C-, S- and I- poses started to sink into Toshiya almost overheated brain after which they only had to practice fluid turning before returning along the catwalk.</p><p>       It was already long past midday, when Eva was happy with Toshiya’s walking, poses and turns.   </p><p>“I think we’re done for the moment. Just let the things you learned sink in for some time. Meanwhile, we should grab some lunch. I know a nice place on Takeshita Street”, Eva concluded.</p><p>“Thanks, a lunch would be nice. I didn’t expect that walking back and forth would be that hard exercise”, Toshiya huffed.</p><p>“Well, it takes a lot of concentration at first. Just imagine that you’re the most beautiful man on the planet and you’ll nail it”, Eva commented. “Actually, it’s not very far from the truth”, she added after a short silence.</p><p>      During their lunch Eva told Toshiya how she had ended up in setting up a business here in Harajuku and Toshiya had the chance to ask questions concerning fashion industry in general. The lunch was delicious and generous with starters, main dish and dessert, all of this chased down with couple of glasses of wine.</p><p>       It was quite late in the afternoon, when they finally left the restaurant and headed back to Eva’s studio. Toshiya changed back to his own clothes and after that they went through Toshiya’s homework before the next training session on Tuesday.</p><p>“I must admit that modelling turned out to be much more difficult than I imagined, when I agreed to your proposal. But I’m happy that I’m doing this now. I just hope that I won’t disappoint you”, Toshiya confessed, when they were saying their goodbyes at the boutique.</p><p>“I know you won’t disappoint me. You have natural talent for modelling”, Eva said sounding sincere. “I promise, I will try to find a better place for your next exercise. I will have to persuade the guy who is renting the premises for our rehearsals and the show to let us use his facilities for your training too”, Eva promised.</p><p>Toshiya was about to bow to Eva as goodbyes, but Eva decided otherwise. She gave Toshiya a warm hug instead. Her hug felt nice and comfortable and made Toshiya’s heart beat a little faster.</p><p>      When Toshiya was back home again, he found Kuro waiting at his doorstep as usual. Toshiya let the cat in and gave him some dry food before heading to the bathroom. The lunch had been more than generous, so he settled only for a nonalcoholic beer and sat down on the sofa to watch TV after having a bath. The cat curled into his lap and started to purr loudly when Toshiya petted it’s black and shiny coat.</p><p>“What shall we do with you?” he muttered to the cat before he dozed off on the sofa.</p>
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